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[05omegav6]

How is it going to be fitted? By removing the headlining through the rear quarterlight? In the dark whilst wearing clown hands?

That could work...

[chrisgixer]

How is it going to be fitted? By removing the headlining through the rear quarterlight? In the dark whilst wearing clown hands?

Nope. Two hammers.

[steve6367]

I don't confess to understand all of the last posts.....

I was there removing other useful parts and I find it really useful to try removing things from a scraped car before I set about mine with the hammers! While I was having the track rods off I noted the idler was GM without play so thought why not 

Steve

[Diamond Black Geezer]

I'm with you Steve on this - it's all down to two factors - cost and time. If you're going to spend an hour trying to get off a part the scrappy will charge you £20 for and brand new ones can be had for £5, well it's waste of time, clearly.

However, In the case of the steering idler for the size and cost of the thing, well - as you say at the very least, always worth having a play about to remove it, but the last one I did was in the scrappy, and in then end two of us hacksawed through the rod it was attached to. Took it home, sat it in the vice, a fairly light tap and out the taper popped! So it must have been a case of bad access, as has been said on here already. That idler had done 37k, and they last for approx 100k. Mine's (in theory) not even due to go wobbly for another 25k, but worth having as a spare.

Method of two hammers just didn't work for me, (but it has worked for many) in my case access was bad, and I'd have liked to have got some more pressure on it, and also the whole steering assembly was taking much of the shock, too.

Can't knock scrappys 

[chrisgixer]

Thing is with these, the amount of power needed to remove these varies greatly with the two hammer method. Sometimes they pop off relatively easily, but still needs a bloody good swing. Others, I've seen the whole assembley removed from the car, a full flat out swing with medium sized bats (dont want to Do damage just apply shock ) and it still won't have it. They "can" be a real shit.

A splitter can damage the rubber boot as well of your not reeeeally carefull.

[joff]

In the end I had to cut the old idler off the MV6 with a grinder and then fit the new GM part. The one on the Elite I did 3-4 years ago came off with the 2 hammers

[chrisgixer]

That might be easier for the op. Extension lead and a disc cutter. Cut through the pitman arm and have the good bits away. 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Agreed - as you say it's 'one of them things' - I've popped ball joints off quicker than I can say 'ball joint' and I've fought with them for practically hours. I seem to think Mark DTM explained that with pressure on the idler, when you smack it with the hammers you then are making the hole slightly oval, for a millisecond, thus allowing the shaft to pop out - explained more eloquently than I.

Would add that I'd definitely be going down the route of 'the two hammers' on my own car, as suggested by several good OOFers, it was only due to time constraints in the scrappy that I went down the 'destroy everything in sight apart from the bit I need' method.

[omegod]

Last time I changed one of these the balljoint splitter flew off at full tension and idiotted me right on the forehead knocking me clean out, I woke up on the floor with the neighbours looking down on me 

[omegod]

Last time I changed one of these the balljoint splitter flew off at full tension and idiotted me right on the forehead knocking me clean out, I woke up on the floor with the neighbours looking down on me 

I didn't write "idiotted" but I bet you can guess what it was

[05omegav6]

Last time I changed one of these the balljoint splitter flew off at full tension and idiotted me right on the forehead knocking me clean out, I woke up on the floor with the neighbours looking down on me 

I didn't write "idiotted" but I bet you can guess what it was

That place in Orkney I shouldn't wonder...

Here... In fact...

[omegod]

10 points to Taxi Al 

[steve6367]

Must go there one day!

I will pop back tomorrow with the battery grinder and 2 hammers